Real snow!

 I lied...the snow is back and it is now sticking to the ground. It is around 9:45 and this is what it looks like outside our back door! Beautiful huh?? A bit early for snow to be sticking, but we are in Canada and we do live in a snow belt, so I guess it should be expected, eh??

First snow fall

Today we had our first snow fall of the season.

It did not last long and it never stayed on the ground.

It sure was beautiful though. There is something about the silence and the peacefulness of snow falling that I never tire of!

Does this mean it will be a heavy snowfall winter? Some speculate that it will be...we shall see!

"I hit myself"

So you are probably getting tired of my Rylan conversation stories, but that is our life. Day in and day out, listening to this little man speak his mind. He cracks us up. I figure this is as good a place as any to document some of the funnier things he says. Anyway with that said here is what he said last night while sitting at the table by himself:

That was not nice of me.

What was not nice of you?

I hit myself.

He is such a goofy guy!

BBQ disaster

So I have told Jeff many times that I do not know how to BBQ. He keeps telling me that it is easy and if I can cook in the kitchen then certainly I can BBQ. Well on Saturday Jeff was working outside with other members from our class. They are preparing a garden that we will plant in the spring. Anyway he invited the one couple over for dinner. I had planned for us to eat hamburgers. I know what you are thinking...hamburgers, I thought you were vegan. Well we are...most of the time! Every once in a while we get the urge for a good burger. We bought a big box of them this weekend at the store figuring that it would last for quite sometime and provide our little family with 5 meals. So now that we had friends coming for dinner what would have been 5 meals got reduced to 4. No big deal.

The guys were still working so Jeff asked me to get things cooking. I immediately felt nervous about the BBQ, but I figured what the heck I can do this.

I started the BBQ and turned it on high. The flames did not look too big so I figured that was good. I placed the burgers on the rack and shut the lid. I went to put the tray back inside and figured I would go back out in a few minutes to check on the burgers.

About 2-3 minutes later I went outside and saw that the flames looked very large and seemed to be escaping out the sides. I knew something was wrong.. I opened the lid to find all of the burgers on fire! I quickly shut off the BBQ and took the burgers out. Here is what they looked like:

I was horrified. Not only were these completely inedible now I had wasted 2 of our meals and we had no dinner to eat. My friend was laughing, but I just wanted to cry at that point! When the guys came back we got a laugh out of it and then Jeff cooked us another 2 meals worth of burgers and we ended up having a good evening together.

So the moral of the story: I will NEVER BBQ again!

Sushi 101

 We had a cultural experience on Saturday at our next door neighbor's house. They had us over to learn how to make sushi and then to eat it. None of it was made with raw fish. I made a plate of veggie sushi for our family. It was really good! They also served us miso and tofu soup with seaweed (surprisingly good) and some spicy fermented cabbage (not so good!). We had a great time together and it was fun to learn how to make a new dish!

I made the ones on the white plate

We even attempted chopsticks

A conversation with Rylan

The other night at the dinner table we had a conversation with Rylan and this is how it went:

"I don't want to eat my soup," said Rylan.


"Well if you eat your soup you will get big and strong someday, " said daddy.

"You will be big and strong like daddy," said mommy.

"I gonna eat my soup aaallll gone, " said Rylan. Which he proceeded to do. When he was finished he said, "I'm still hungry."

"Do you want more soup?" Mommy asked.

Rylan replied, "No I don't want more soup. Thank you though. I want another biscuit. I'm gonna be strong. I'm gonna be daddy."

Just thought I would share a typical conversation with Rylan. His vocabulary improves everyday and he copies everything we say and do. (Which is rather scary at times!!)

Fall colors

This is near where we live. This is the Saugeen River. Thought you might like to see some of the beautiful colors!

Carsten thoroughly enjoyed our long walk around the town of Durham the other day. He especially enjoyed chewing on some leaves!

Apparently Rylan figured since flowers have a nice scent, leaves must also!

Our school took a canoe trip down the Saugeen river the other day! It was so fun. We left the boys with a fellow classmate and enjoyed the afternoon on a canoe together!

Canoeing is hard work! I am still sore from it a few days later :)